Opportunities from Shell Sell-off

The Daily Telegraph today reports that Shell may well be selling-off a stack of North Sea assets. Regular readers of this blog will know that a year or so ago I was peripherally involved in a (sadly failed) bid into the government's CCS competition. The long-term vision of that bid was to dispose of CO2 by using it for enhanced oil recovery from depleted NS fields. One of the key requirements to make the scheme really work was to be able to tap a series of assets in order to be able to maintain a plateau volume of CO2 disposal. (CO2 is "recycled" in the process so the profile going into any single field can be a declining one). So, don't be surprised if a few small, agile down-stream players snap up the Shell assets with a view to an EOR future.